SPOILERS: The TruthKEYWORDS: post-The Truth, musings, shipper.NOTES: I'm not a native English speaker, so you may find here some liguistic incoherencies. Just be kind, ok?DISCLAIMER: What? You think Mulder and Scully are mine? REALLY? Where have you been in the past decade? Living on a cave?

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"Scully?" his voice came out as low whisper, still a little hoarse from sleep.

"Humm?" she could barely open her eyes, and Mulder wasn't sure she actually heard him.

"Did you look at the sky tonight?"

"Humm" yes, she wasn't listening to a word he said.

"The sky, Dana" he tried once more, rising from the bed and making Scully shiver at the loss of body contact.

"Mulder?" she finally woke up, eyes red and a bit groggy, but the fear that sparkled inside them made Mulder's heart aches. The same fear he saw in her eyes when they spent the first of many nights in hiding. The fear of being caught. The fear of a guilty woman. Except she wasn't guilty of anything but believing in the truth.

"Look at the sky, Dana. It's beautiful". Scully couldn't follow his track of thought. What was he talking about? They were in the middle of nowhere, hiding from everything and everybody, months without contact with Skinner or Doggett… And that probably was the first night they spent together without having to run away at the first beam of sunlight.

She opened her mouth to protest, to ask what the hell was he talking about, but she closed it when she saw Mulder's gaze. He was serious. Scully finally rose from the bed, mimicking Mulder's position, sitting completely naked, forgetting about the sheets tangled at their feet. The temperature was warm, and the silhouette of Mulder's naked body being lighted by moonlight was just astonishing, and Scully found herself gazing at him like she had never seen his naked body before.

In that specific night, with that odd gleam of the moon, he looked just… adorable. He was staring out at the window, probably enjoying the view of the night sky, wrapped up in his own world, unaware of Scully's fascination with him.

The window was straight in front of the bed, in the opposite wall of the room. The lack of curtains made it impossible to hide the view of the world outside, but there wasn't too much to hide in that particular part of the world: just a bunch of cows and an occasional cactus growing from that dry land.

"Look at the night sky, Scully" Mulder said, finally looking at her.

Scully forced herself to break eye contact. She would never get tired of those hazel eyes of his, but feeling him so close and so open to her made her feel safe. He wouldn't disappear. He wouldn't leave her. When she turned her eyes to her side again, he would still be there.

Through the window, Scully could see the deserted land fade in the horizon, where it would meet the dark night sky, with not a single star to brighten it. There was a full moon, which would explain the lack of starlight, but looking up at it, Scully was surprised to see one single star, shiny and shameless stealing the moon's spectacle.

"Wow" was all she could say.

"When was the last time you looked at the night sky?" Mulder asked it without looking at her, but Scully's head turned to face him, intrigued. "I mean, when was the last time you really looked at the sky, not thinking about fear, aliens or ghosts? When was the last time you looked at it just for simple pleasure?"

Scully stared back at the window, and sighed. She found herself unable to answer his questions. "I don't know, Mulder. Why?"

"It's just…" he sighed, staring at his own feet "We spend so much time worrying about the future, hiding, running, fearing to look up and see them taking over this planet… And we just forget that there's still a sky above us, unaware of their presence or ours. It's just there… being. And we forget that there's still some beauty in this world".

Scully placed a hand on Mulder's thigh, and squeezed it gently. "Oh, Mulder".

"I'm so sorry that you had to leave all behind because of…"

"No" she interrupted him. "Don't even start your speech, I had enough of it." He sighed and leaned over Scully, his breath warm against her cheek. "Let's just enjoy the view, like you said, Mulder, just for a change". She stroked his hair when his head came to rest on her shoulder.

Mulder closed his eyes. "Can we do that? Can we stare at the night sky knowing what we know? Will we be able to look at it with such innocence, once we know the truth?"

"The truth can't destroy the beauty in this world"

"But it can destroy innocence, Scully"

She didn't replied to that. She knew he was right.

Looking at that inconvenient star shining just above the full moon, Scully finally understood what Mulder meant with that talk.

She couldn't do it.

She couldn't look at the sky without worrying about the future. She just couldn't forget all she knew, and what once was synonymous of beauty and peace of spirit, now was synonymous of fear and threat. That poor lonely star was like premonition of death inside Scully's head.

She felt like crying, but didn't shed a tear.

Finis

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